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MAINTENANCE SPECIALIST
MAINTENANCE SPECIALIST
By 2033, assuming everything remains on schedule, the three longest railway tunnels in the world will all be constructed under the same mountain pass, a credit to incredible tunnel boring technology, conveyor belt maintenance and civil engineering prowess.
Along with the already existing Gotthard Base Tunnel, the Brenner Base Tunnel and the Mont d’Ambin Base Tunnel will pass through the Alps and provide vital high-speed transportation links between one of the busiest and most treacherous transport links in the world and bring Continental Europe closer together.
Following the success of Gotthard, other similar tunnels were perhaps inevitable, but to understand why, here is a brief overview of the slower routes the tunnels are set to replace, the race to completion between the two tunnels and the extent to which it could change transportation in Europe.
The big connection all three tunnels have is the New Railway Link through the Alps (NRLA), a radical shift in how one of the biggest barriers to crossing Europe can be traversed that no longer relies on evolutions of ancient trading routes.
The Gotthard Base Tunnel replaced the Gotthard Pass, a transport link that took a long time and was particularly vulnerable to the variable weather conditions characteristic of the Alps.
The Brenner Base Tunnel, similarly, has been developed to replace the historic Brenner Pass, a mountain pass that dates back to the Ice Age but was first formalised by the Roman Empire, which connects Italy with Austria.
Finally, the Mont d’Ambin Base Tunnel was designed to supersede the Frejus Rail Tunnel, a pivotal rail link between France and Italy developed in 1871. Previously, the same part of the Alps was considered impassable.
All of these tunnels are technically part of separate projects (NRLA, the Trans-European Transport Networks and the Turin-Lyon High Speed Railway, respectively), but they all travel under the same vast mountain pass and result in a fundamental change away from surface road transport towards high-speed underground railways.
Both new tunnels are set to break records once they are completed, but the question will be about which record is broken first.
The Brenner Base Tunnel is set to be completed in 2032, a year ahead of Mont d’Ambin, which would narrowly make it the second-largest tunnel in the world at 34 miles long (55 km) between its starting points at Innsbruck and Franzensfeste in Italy..
However, when combined with the pre-existing Innsbruck Bypass, the underground portion would extend by another six miles (9 km). This would be the longest underground railway in the world by 4.5 miles (7 km), assuming it completes on time.
By contrast, Mont d’Ambin would be the longest railway tunnel in the world by just 400 metres, with a total length of 35.7 miles (57.5 km) compared to the 35.5 miles (57.1 km) that the
Gotthard currently stretches. This would push the Brenner Base Tunnel to third overall.
This assumes that the current start and end points of Maurianne in France and Susa Valley in Italy, respectively, continue to be used.
There are three key aims of any transport tunnel:
The NRLA, TEN-T and Turin-Lyon lines are predicated on making it easy for people in Continental Europe to travel, with different nations working in tandem to standardise their rail networks and fund harmonising, connected infrastructure projects.
The main argument for developing them is that existing transport links are close to or have already exceeded capacity, which forces people to travel via slower alternative routes or via air travel, both of which come with a carbon cost.
The Mont d’Ambin tunnel, in particular, has seen intense controversy that has delayed its development with an intensity comparable to the Stonehenge road tunnel before it was cancelled or High Speed 2.
The intense protests surrounding it, led by the No TAV movement, have led to questions surrounding the exact exit point in Italy.
This is what led to the 3.1-mile extension that made it a record-breaking tunnel, and since this was agreed upon, the protests have stopped to a degree.
The success of the Gotthard Base Tunnel has formed a template for the kinds of modal shift that both tunnels want to emulate, and whilst aeroplanes will still be slightly faster from Milan to Paris than the prospective finished route, the gap will be so much smaller that it will be worthwhile for passengers.
It could prove revolutionary for freight, saving significant amounts of time, money and pollution.
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